Otto Ruge

Otto Ruge (9 January 1882-15 August 1961) was a Norwegian general who commanded the Norwegian Army during the Norwegian Campaign of World War II in 1940.

Biography
Otto Ruge was born in Kristiania, Sweden-Norway (now Oslo, Norway) on 9 January 1882, and he joined the Norwegian Army in 1902. He became Chief of the General Staff in 1933, and he became Inspector General of Infantry in 1938. In 1940, he replaced Kristian Laake as commander-in-chief during Nazi Germany's Norwegian Campaign, and his strategy was to slowly retreat northward and establish a defensive line south of Trondheim while waiting for the Allies to reconquer that city. However, the Allied pincers attacked too far from the city, and they were embattled before their assault could even begin. His poor choices in strategy facilitated the German occupation of Norway, and he was held under German arrest until the end of World War II in 1945. He died in 1961.